Claiming the Courageous Middle: Daring to Live and Work Together for a More Hopeful Future

Today's political and cultural polarization has led to suspicion and animosity in our churches, our workplaces, and even our families. It has also led to a false sense that our options are limited to choosing a side. But there is a better way.

Shirley Mullen invites readers to claim the powerful, redemptive potential of the courageous middle. Far from being a place of bland averaging, moral cowardice, wobbling indecisiveness, or lazy indifference, the courageous middle is a place where thoughtful individuals work with urgency to foster attentive rather than dismissive listening in order to garner what is true and praiseworthy even from those with whom they disagree. Their Christian faith, which makes it impossible for them to align themselves fully with one side or the other, uniquely equips them to call their communities to imagine a more hopeful, grace-filled future.

This book offers a Christian theological framework for the work of "middle space" drawn from the Old and New Testaments. It also includes practical advice on how to prepare for this work, examples of those who have called their communities to alternatives beyond binary options, and discussion questions.

Shirley A. Mullen (PhD, University of Minnesota; PhD, University of Wales) served as president of Houghton College for fifteen years before retiring in 2021. She spent four decades in the work of faith-based liberal arts education as a professor, residence life director, chief academic officer, and president. As president emerita for Houghton University, Mullen continues to speak, write, and consult as part of her ongoing commitment to encourage and invest in the next generation of leaders through mentoring and serving on the boards of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, Jericho Road Community Health Center, the National Association of Evangelicals, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the 1st Amendment Partnership.